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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27828373">I forgot I remembered</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/iceprinceofbelair/pseuds/iceprinceofbelair'>iceprinceofbelair</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Introspection, Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug, Memories, Post-Calamity Ganon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:22:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>598</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27828373</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/iceprinceofbelair/pseuds/iceprinceofbelair</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“May I ask...do you really remember me?”</p><p>Her voice holds such fragile hope that Link feels a weight of responsibility settle in his throat. What does he even say to that? Sort of? Not really? Yes, but there’s still so much I don’t know about myself and I kind of hate that I know more about you than me?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Link &amp; Zelda (Legend of Zelda)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>52</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I forgot I remembered</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>title from "something familiar" by josienne clarke and ben walker (10/10 botw!link song imo)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“May I ask...do you really remember me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her voice holds such fragile hope that Link feels a weight of responsibility settle in his throat. What does he even say to that? Sort of? Not really? Yes, but there’s still so much I don’t know about myself and I kind of hate that I know more about you than me?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything he knows about himself, he has to frame in the context of Zelda. Almost every memory he has involves her and, even when he remembers his time alone with the other champions, her presence lingers like the dull ache of a long-healed wound. He has an intimate understanding of Zelda’s relationship with her father and yet all he knows of his own father is that he was probably a knight. Did he have any other family, any friends outside the champions? Did he have a favourite colour? Does he have one now?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he can’t say any of that because he knows, somehow, that it will hurt her more than she will let him know. The burden of protecting her feelings falls on him and he supposes that’s fair - she has been trapped with the literal incarnation of hatred for 100 years because he couldn’t protect her the first time around. He has no right to make her feel like she’s failed him even though a treacherous spark of hatred ignites somewhere inside of him. He refuses to feed it. It won’t help.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So he says nothing and it feels...familiar. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At first, the glimpses of the stoic silence of his past had been jarring and he’d lain awake at night wondering why he never seemed to have anything to say. He’d seen the frustration in Revali’s gaze when that Link had watched him with no emotion in his eyes and felt a similar wave of annoyance. He’d hoped these memories would bring with them an understanding of who he was but his past self was unreadable and Link found himself unable to put himself back in those moments, instead a spectator in his own life. In the end, the memories did little to fill the gaping chasm in his chest and, after many nights crying himself to sleep by pilfered campfire, he’d finally decided it didn’t matter. If he couldn’t fill that hole with his past self then he’d just have to make sure his new self was enough. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So he talked. He talked to everybody - stable-goers, shop owners, travellers (though that did see him in more fights with the Yiga Clan than he cared to admit). He discovered that he loved learning about Hyrule from the locals, loved chatting with villagers about their homes and their lives. He loved making friends and learning new recipes and helping people in the little ways he could as he passed through. Most of all, he loved kids. Kids asked the most interesting questions and told the best stories. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now, though, faced with Zelda all but begging him to tell her he remembers her, he feels his throat close over. He doesn’t think he could speak even if he knew what to say. Something heavy and dark settles on his shoulders and it becomes just a little more difficult to stand. This, too, is familiar. It’s ironic, he thinks, that he’s spent most of his time awake trying desperately to understand why he behaves so differently now than he apparently did before and now that he knows… well, part of him wishes he hadn’t bothered worrying. He should have enjoyed it while it lasted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh well. Too late now.</span>
</p>
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